Where In The World Is . . . Carmen Angelica

Turkey Day (or for the vegetarians, "day of much starch")

2008-11-27T15:25:00.000-08:00

Turkey Day WOOOOOOOOH!! I just came back from dinner with most of the kids from my program. it was crazy. After helping out on a shoot today I rushed home to boil and mash potatoes for the potluck dinner. I made more than ten pounds of mashed potatoes. It was madness in the kitchen. Potato was flying everywhere, pots and pans filled the sink. there were butter streaks across the walls. But in the end the potatoes were made (thanks to Jac). Jac brought her mom's famous (and delicious) sausage bread, and I lugged the pot of mashed potatoes down to the cafe in the courtyard.
The food was unbelieveable!! Nia and Lexi ended up cooking the 30 pound turkey along with sweet rolls. monica brought (the best!!) chocolate truffles and stuffing. There were green beans, corn, tsatziki, three different types of potatoes and . . . everything. There was so much food that I hurt now. We shoved food into our faces, chatting and having a grand time. But now I am back in the room trying to stay awake, so I don't fall into a food coma . . .

This wasn't even all the food . . .

Nia carving the Turkey!!

Jac and the potatoes

Me and the Potatoes

I know what Kris and Adam are thankful for . . .

On another note. yes, I am yet again a bad bad bear for not writing as much as I said I would. But I had a nice busy weekend and week of partying and work.

My weekend began when Jac's friend Maddie visited from Paris. We had fun going to the Guinness factory ( I drank a whole pint of Guinness BY MYSELF!!) and exploring Ireland and going clubbing. It was great. I only wish she could have stayed longer but sadly she did not . . . oh well.

The Guinness factory speaks some beautiful words
Jac making her fingers dance.

The bar at the top of the Guinness factory

Jac and Maddie drinkin' pints

I became an emergency Assistant Director for a couple of shoots this week since all the music video kids are working on their music videos with their professional bands. It's cool. So I've been assigned the job of either grunt work, or AD (aka that chick who has to be like "um, guys . . . we have three minutes to set up the green screen, or else we won't have time to finish the movie . . . please don't hurt me . . .").

My week of crazy shooting started on Saturday night at 12 am, with my friend Anu's shoot. We traveled to Kells and slept over until Saturday staying at Darcey's (one if her band members) beautiful house's in the Irish country side. The band "Ham Sandwich" was great and we had a lot of fun shooting their music video, and watching them perform. Mrs. Darcey (Darcey's mother) was a wonderful woman who, when seeing a group of scraggly, manorished, sleep deprived film students cooked us a huge breakfast of brown bread, homemade Jam, coffee and apple cake. Than for lunch made fresh lasagna, mashed poatatos and apple crisp for dessert. Obviously the whole crew fell in love with Mrs. Darcey.

The Lead singer of Ham Sandwich

Ham Sandwich performing

Art direction for shoot

sleep deprived Anu and Sarah . . .

The next shoot was Tuesday when I ended up becoming a last minute AD when Sarah Rudoy's original AD ended up being unable to AD for the day. I have never really been an AD before so I tried to mimic what my friends did. I went over the shot list with Sarah and tried to make a rough time table. In the end it worked and I am officially an experienced AD. It was a lot of fun. I especially loved working with Sarah and her singer Wallis Bird.

Wednesday I helped out again on Sarah's shoot, but only for half the day. I had to leave early to search for paint thinner when the paint I was using to paint the set turned out to be oil based. eventually I went to a hardware store and they gave me baby wipes that worked!! nice thing to know for future sets. Than I headed ot writing class. We are getting close to the end of our screenplays. I am going to finish on Tuesday. I'm not ready . . .

Than today I ADed for Will's shoot. It was great. It was stressful but good. I feel like I'm getting the hang of ADing, whcih is good because it means I can finally be good at something on set!! I can be around people in film!! This is great, I won't just be holed up writing and editing like usual! After the shoot I helped bring everything back and than went off to make the potatoes of glory.

Now I really must go and store the leftover potatoes in whatever type of storage material we have in the apartment (ie. jars, bowls, pencil boxes . . .) So goodnight and a happy happy thanksgiving.

I am so baaaaaad (as the sheep of Ireland would say)

2008-11-20T12:27:00.000-08:00

Hey all, yes. It has been too long because I am a bad bad girl. But I have a good explanation for not writing for the past 3 weeks. here I shall list my excuses.

1.) When I got back from midterm break, we had midterm projects due. All in the same week.

2.) We lost the power in our room, which made our bedroom flood when the power came back on and the people upstairs left their sinks on because they were big stupid heads.

3.) we had to move to a different apartment with no internet and Jac and I were too lazy to actually walk to the office and get internet access.

4.) My parents visited during that and I was busy showing my parents around Dub Dub and eating food that I normally couldn't afford.

5.) I went to Amsterdam shortly after my parents left.

6.) It is finals week.

so it has been crazy and I'm sorry I have not been consistent with my writing.

things have been good though, and it is getting pretty exciting as my screenplay is now more than half written and people around me are finishing their screenplays and music videos.

I realize although I will never choose to live in Dublin, I am going to miss Dublin and this program and the people who are in it. Sure we will all see each other at school again, but it's not quite the same thing. We're like this little group of film kids who have traveled, worked and played together all semester. We have all seen each other at our best and worst. I was lucky to spend this semester with this group of people. It will be a little sad to leave this small group, but at the same time really nice to see all my friends back in New York.

Anyway, clearly I am quite reflective right now when I should be writing my screenplay, so i will go and stop being sappy. I will write more later once I finish writing my 80 pages of screenplay that is due on Sunday . . . and my final history paper . . . and helping on shoots . . . wooh.

I'll try to write later.

Barcelona (part two)

2008-10-27T16:58:00.000-07:00

So on our second day of Barcelona Lexi, Monica and I slept after a long time of not having the chance too. It was glorious. We woke up and went down for our free breakfast that came with our room cost. It consisted of toast, a palmier, and the best cup of coffee I have had since leaving the Mud Spot in New York City. I went back for seconds, it was this hazelnutty flavor. Rich and delicious. I had it black and it was perfect.

Than we met up with Elan and Will and went to the exhibit on Alphonsa Mucha in the CaixaForum. It was pretty amazing. I learned all about his life and got to see his works as they became more famous. He did works like elaborate posters for theater and film to individual pieces of his own liking. it was very interesting. I enjoyed it. After that we went back to the coffee shop we found the first day and had paninis and I had one of the best hot chocolates I have ever had. It was pure melted chocolate in a cup. I fell in love/lust.

Than we met up with Jac and Nia. They had arrived earlier but decided to get a big lunch while we went for paninis. Than we headed out to chill in our hostel and get settled. We headed out and checked out the market where they sold turtles and chipmunks. I had to film them. I had to.

After that we found this amazing restaurant that gave a prix fix meal to die for. Appatizer, entree and dessert. yum. I had a rice dish, a steak and fruit salad. And a craft of wine. i was toasty for the night. Than we all tried to get into a club that rejected us on sight (apparently our backpackers attire was not swanky enough) so we headed to the Bar Marsella. It is cool because it is were Hemingway wrote and Picasso was inspired to do his blue period in that bar, but i didn't enjoy the walk there because there were many a learing man who would reach out and touch. I was already a little tipsy so that just made me more on edge and in the end it triggered bad feelings so I had trouble fully enjoying the very cool bar.

The next day Jac, Lexi, Monica, Sarah, Nia and I woke up, decided to grab a croissant (and another hot chocolate for me) and head out to see Antoni Gaudi's Temple de la Segrada Familia. it was stunning. I am not normally a huge architecture fan (probably because I know so little about the subject) but Gaudi's work is some of the best artwork i have ever seen. it is like picasso in 3D. but not. It's beautiful and that's what matters.

We stopped and got a cheap lunch (where I had the best burger in my life!!) and run off to the Picasso museum. I loved it. Picasso has always been in my top 6 favorite painters in history. i cannot order which one I like the best. I just know that I can glom Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, Seurat and Dali. I miss painting, i think I should start that up again. if I could find time to do film too.

It was perfect. Picasso's work is so amazing the way it changes over time. His first paintings were so precise and realistic (he was 15 by the way and painting like that). So to see the progression into impressionism, to his blue phase, to cubism. It was fantastic to see in one place. Learning about his life and even seeing some of his family's work (pottery mom, his daughter was a potter). I loved the museum. I was the last to leave, because I was so sucked into his work.

Outside the museum there was an amazing guitarist palying as we all sat and listened sleepily. than we walked into the park nearby and watched dogs walk by and people perform capoera.

It was pretty cool but got repetative after a while. Than we headed back. Sarah R. Lexi and I went out to a cafe got snadwiches and very rich melted chocolate in a cup (chocolate is a very important part of the trip). yum. Sarah headed back to catch a movie and Lexi, jac and I headed to Adams to have wine and socialize before going out. We had a good time in his amazing apartment and then headed out. Sadly we realized too late that it was Sunday and no cabbies or subways were open to take us to the Elephant (a club we thought we might check out). Apparently it was "god's day" so transportation was nill. We decided to get late night falafels. we had to deal with the falafel guys trying to charge us twice and a customer trying to start a fight with Adam by smacking his fries out his hands. It was a weird night, but we made the best of it and headed home after eating fries and falafels.

Now I have written about two days there and I need to go to bed because I have class tomorrow but I will write more tomorrow about the Barcelona, Florance and Paris. And chocolate in general.

Barcelona (part one) pictures

2008-10-26T17:25:00.001-07:00

In the airport looking like gypsies ready to board gypsy airline!!

Our 6 euro feast!!

Our apple/pear (do you see where the confusion came into play?)

Our outdoor feasting in the mountains.

Monica's best friend

They sold parrots in the marketplace!

and Garret the Farret
(I named him Garret because of my character Garret the Farret in my screenplay)

and baby bunnies. I want a baby bunny.

Beautiful architecture in Barcelona

My Mocha in Barcelona.
My first chocolate experience on my unofficially official chocolate tour of Europe.

Candied pears in the Bazaar.

This is so much candy in one spot it makes my teeth hurt looking at it.

Nuts. 'Nuff said.

Chocolate in the bazaar. Of course this would be a part of my unofficially official chocolate tour of Europe.

OCTOPUS!!

Our view of the mountains from our hostel.

Beautiful Barcelona at night.

Barcelona is lovely

Angry turtles climbing the mountain

Look closely and you can see the wild boars.

Barcelona (part one)

2008-10-26T16:37:00.000-07:00

My trip began with staying up all night waiting to catch a flight that left for Barcelona at 6:10 am. Which meant I had to leave for the airport at 3:00 am to make sure we got there in time. Luckily I had my fellow gypsy travelers, Lexi and Monica, ready to fly with me. We blearily made our way from cab, to airport to finally the plane, where I experienced Ryan Air for the very first time.

For those who do not know, Ryan Air is a cheap quick way of flying around Europe. It is a great way for backpackers to catch a flight for prices as low as 11 euro (about 15 dollars). However, there is a reason that the planes are so cheap. because they are horrible. Everybody is jammed onto a stuffy bumpy plane that plays a horrible jingle every 15 minutes. Worse the jingle starts off with the sound of an explosion, which lead me to believe that we were crashing every 15 minutes. Not pleasant for the uneasy plane flying passengers.

My first solution was "I should just try and sleep through this mess of a mess!". However, as I lay my head down on the fold out table, I had to quickly jerk myself up again because the stench of stale dry vomit was too much to handle. There are no vomit bags, so people use their fold out tables. I ended up dozing with my head on my knees in the strangest fetal position ever, while the drunk Irish men around us cheered every time the jingle came on.

After surviving the flight, Lexi, Monica and I waited for the bus, which ended up breaking down so it took us two and a half hours to finally make it to Barcelona city center and than head to our hostel in the mountains. Our directions for the hostel was to take the metro there and than "climb the mountain 500 steps". So we did, climb the mountain that is. But I must warn you it was far more than 500 steps. When we finally reached the hostel, we had lost 20 pounds and needed nourishment badly. Luckily the amazing hostel owners offered a feast for 6 euro out on the terrace that overlooked the stunning view of the mountains. the meal consisted of fish sticks, risottos with tomato soup over the top, bread, salad, and a candied apple/pear (we finally realized it was an apple but it took a long time to figure that out). Meanwhile during the whole meal we made friends with the hostel's local cat as Monica fed it fish sticks and I pet it's skinny little head.

After lunch was siesta time, which was glorious. We met up with our fellow NYUer Adam, and our soon to become friend Emily. They showed us the AMAZING apartment they managed to rent for a week in the heart of the city. They took us on a tour of the bazaar where we saw more candy/fruit/meat in one place than I have ever seen in my life. After seeing so much grocery food, we all decided when in Barcelona, eat as the Barcelonians! That's right folks . . . Tapas. After much searching we found a place and ordered a big tapas for all and a pitcher of sangria.

During the meal we had our first encounter with the famous thieves of Barcelona. Always the paranoid one I had my purse on my lap for dinner but because most are not as neurotic people casually hung their bags an purses on the arms of their chairs. this is normally not a problem. unless you are traveling in Barcelona. As we sat, enjoying our Tapas, my paranoid eyes noticed a an sneak up next to Lexi's chair, and slowly begin to pull her purse of the arm of her chair.

Don't ask me what came over me, because let's face it I hate touching strangers, but I grabbed the mans hand and began speaking as much Spanish as I knew.

"HEY HEY!! NO!! NO!!!" I yelled holding on to the surprised man's hand. He promptly let go muttering "tranquilé . . . tranquilé . . ." (which means "relax") and ran away. I can proudly say, that for that moment, I was heroic. For the rest of the night everybody held on to their bags for dear life. Luckily this did not ruin our night, as we talked about politics and film and college life.

By the time we finished it was late and we were full of tapas and sangria so Monica, Lexi, and I said our goodbyes and headed back to our hostel in the mountains. As we climbed our 500+ steps we were welcomed back to the mountainous region by a small snuffling heard of wild boars. i tried to take pictures but it was so dark and the boars (and Lexi) got scared so we wished the boars goodnight and headed up the rest of the mountain.

And that was day one. Tomorrow I will write about day two and so forth.

The Midterm Trip Installments

2008-10-26T16:32:00.000-07:00

Soooo my trip was so jam packed with different things that where done, and places that where visited, it might take a while but I feel like this trip should definitely be given large amount of talk time on the bloggy blog. If not because I think cool stuff happened but because considering my last entry was about microwaving my undies . . . I think we've hit a low point in Dublin's excitingt activities. so here are the installments. It may take some time so have patience.

Quick Writing from Barcelona

2008-10-21T08:59:00.000-07:00

Hola!! Currently writing from Barcelona! It is amazing!! I am having so much fun and eating so much delicious food here. And things are so much cheaper hereit makes me sad to have to go back to Dublin and eat Campbells Soup every day. I am getting fatter and happier every day and looking at a beatiful city full of art. Even the buildings are amazing thanks to Gaudi, the best architect in the world. I saw the park he built and I dont think I have been productive enough in my life. I just thought I would try to write a short little blurb but I will definitley go into more detail when I can actually upload pictures and video footage! But I have to go and fly to Florance right now!

2008-10-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

RIP undies

Learning New Things

2008-10-16T08:59:00.000-07:00

Well, today I learned that you should not microwave your underwear.

Yes I did microwave my undies but I swear you would have too if you were in my place. Today is the day before I head off to Barcelona for fall break (usually there is not a fall break but because they know we need some travel time we all get a fall break, pretty sweet i must admit). Yesterday I decided to wash all of my underwear and socks and all that good stuff so I would not have to worry when I was traveling. But than, because apparently I did something very bad in a previous life, our washing machine broke down locking my soaking wet undies in with a gallon of water.

I tried to open the door of the machine and water came flooding ou. It was a crazy wet mess. Sadly our wonderful miracle worker Sigita could not come in until this morning to fix the possessed machine. She finally came and waved her hand over the machine fixing it (not really but she did know just how to fix it, I swear she is amazing).

However, my problems were not completely fixed, because although we have a washer it does not dry clothing (because it is the nastiest little washing machine ever). Now I am leaving for Barcelona at 2:30 am because we are flying on Crappy-But-Cheap Airlines so I need my underwear and I need it dry. Quick. I have no hairdryer otherwise the obvious choice would be to blowdry it. But I do have a microwave.

For the first set I was very careful and my intimates came out fresh and dry. Than on my forth pair I walked away fro a second and when I came back I smelled smoke and saw my poor charred panties in the microwave. It was sad, because I liked that pair of underwear, but never will I wear them again, because the elsatic melted and the cloth disintigrated if I held it to hard. So half of my underwear is dry and clean and the other is slightly damp because I'm afraid to microwave any other items of clothing.

Other than my underwear adventure, my week has been nice, and full of work. This week in class we were assigned our midterm projects for history and theater. As well as reviewing one of two plays that we viewed. I decided to review Delerium, a very abstract strange play instead of Samuel Beckett's Happy Days. Partly because I already wrote the review on Delerium after I watched the show, and partly because when Jac and I got to the theater to see Happy Days we came a minute late and they locked us out. We couldn't get in (believe me we even tried sneaking into the back and standing quietly but they kicked us out. So we saw the second half at intermission. It was really good and I wish I could have seen the full performance but such is life. Jac and I decided to write a haiku as we sat at the bar upstairs waiting for intermission (they would not serve any drink because they "didn't want anyone to get rowdy" I wanted to tell them that since they weren't going to let me see the first half of the show, and they wouldn't get me a drink, I was going to get rowdy anyways. But I'm polite. So I didn't.). Our haiku went like this.

Happy Days
By Jaclyn Gramigna (and some help from Carmen Angelica)

The first half was good.
We sat on black in the light.
There were no drinks served.

In class I presented my treatement (which is the short narrative version of a screenplay). It went ok but there is definitely more work to do to make the story good. People like my villain who I am basing one the beloved Sarah Palin. Oh how I do I hate thee Palin, but she does make a fantastic villain.

Other than that mainly this week has been spent saving money for traveling. but I thought i would blog now because unless I find an internet cafe I won't be able to for a while. But I will try to find an internet cafe. I promise. Maybe in Paris. Now I am all packed, and I'm going to shower for the last time in a long time because traveling using hostels is a stinky adventure.

Some pictures from my time here

2008-10-13T13:01:00.001-07:00

Awesome Picasso Mural

Scary Mural that is quite blatantly anti-Catholic

My favorite Mural of Fredrick Douglass who lived in Ireland for a while.

A mural for a martyr . . .

Scary Mural

Murals on the Protestant side

The red hand of Ulster

The story behind the red hand of Ulster

The Delaurian which was made in Ireland

Scary mural from the Protestant

Shootin' a party scene for lauren's music video

Apparently, bows are in fashion . . . big bows . . .

Former prime minister of Ireland

The author

This is a really cool sculpture I saw in Belfast museum of transportation

Book Readings and Belfast

2008-10-13T12:26:00.000-07:00

Well, since I last wrote I went to a book opening for a book on Cromwell who is the most hated man among the Catholic of Ireland. We learned about him in class and apparently he hated Catholics so much he started huge massacre's in which Catholics where tortured and embarrassed and killed. Our teacher, Tommy, was a friend of the author's so he invited us to the opening which was held in the Trinity Library. The library is beautiful and it was interesting shmoozing and listening to the presenters (one of whom was the former prime minister of Ireland).

They also gave out free wine, and having been fasting all day before the opening I got slightly shnockered. But don't worry I had a snack bar and some dinner before the drinking. But luckily it was with a group of friends and it made me so sleepy I went ot bed early that night.

Than I did homework/watched the office with Jac, most of friday until we went out for Kris's Brithday bash. It was fun, we went ot a dance club called the Turk's head and had a good time bopping around.

Saturday we headed out to Belfast, which for those who do not know, it is the biggest city in Norhtern Ireland and also the location of a lot of the famous fighting between Catholics and Protistants. It was interesting visiting the city and seeing all of the aftermath and current strife that has so greatly affected the city.

Large parts of the city where gated off from other parts of the city into Catholic and Protistant sections. In the different neighborhoods there were murals all over that glorified the martyrs for "the cause" (the cause being fighting for independance from Britain, which technically still is "in charge of " Northern Ireland). I was surprised to see that although the official fighting has stopped there is still violence and segregation. People continue to feel hostility toward one another and constantly write new murals with slogans against one another and for the cause. A little disheartening, I must admit because I thought things had been worked out. goes to show how much I knew before coming here.

It reminded me so much of Cyprus where people held grudges for so long that the hate just happened naturally. The reason for the hate was so long ago that it no longer mattered, and all people focused on was continuing to hate one another. I saw that in Belfast and it made me so sad. I guess it goes to show it's everywhere.

Now I'm back, and trying to finish my homeowork for class tomorrow. I'm nervous to present my treatment on Wednesday but I worked hard and I hope people like it. Things are just crazy, as everybody gets ready for the next project. I've been helping out in some people's films in my free time, mainly acting. On Friday I acted in my suitemate Katie's film. I lypsynced to "Smell Yo Dick" by the rapper Riskay. It was fun. Than today I acted in another film, I was the chick in the middle of a love triangle and the directors had a cool way of presenting to idea to the audiance. It was fun and I think it went well but I guess it's really the director who decides in the end.

Other than that I'm pretty pooped and feel like I should get back to work, but I think it was necessary to write in the bloggy blog because I feel like I've been slacking off. Especially considering I will be heading off to Barcelona, Florence and Paris pretty soon and I hope to have a lot of short films and fun stories to share. In the meantime must work, and I will try to write tomorrow.

Yom Kippur and Other Adventures

2008-10-09T03:45:00.000-07:00

I'm hungry, and it's only 11:45 am here so I have approximately six and a half more hours till I can eat again because I'm waiting till sundown. Yes. I am fasting for Yom Kippur. Jac told me she wouldn't gloat about the fact that she can eat. too much.
You're probably wondering why? Why is an aetheist who loves eating more than any other activity (almost) is choosing to fast? because . . .

1.) Cheap (grocery shopping sucks the money out of my pockets faster than a vacuum cleaner sucks lint off the floor)
2.) I'm exploring my religious background (I have practiced Lent once, so I feel like it is only appropriate to give my Jewish half equal lovin' by fasting).
3.) To really make myself appreciate food, so that when I eat it I don't take it for granted, (because sometimes i just eat without thinking).

This should be fun. Technically you're not supposed to drink water or work either, but being a filmy, this is not an option. I will still be doing my homework. I am also worried about becoming dehydrated considering this is a first time for me. So I'm sorry if it's not being a true Yom Kippur fast . . . er.

It has been a busy week. I helped a lot of people on their shoots. I was dubbed a DP for Sarah's shoot (never done it before) and I acted in a lot of people's projects. It was fun, and I guess I'll have a lot of stuff for my future reel (who knows, maybe I'll do some acting after college??)

I also finished my treatment for class. Although I didn't have to read it in class I did get it done. I think It's coming along, my teacher says that I am capturing the childhood fears well, without tramautizing the kiddies. I'm glad because it is something I was worried about. I don't like tramautizing children.

This week my classes are definitley starting to get old. luckily I only have two days of class, but I wish they were a bit more exciting. I'm so spoiled by having a bunch of productions classes in New York. Yeah, there is a lot of work involved but it's more exciting than sitting in class and hearing lectures.

However, I did get to see another show for my drama class. We watched a production of The Cripple of Inishmaan By Martin McDonagh. Watching McDonagh movies and plays and reading his works has helped me come to the conclusion that he is definitely one of my new favorite playwrites. Although I get the feeling that there is a great deal of anamosity for him here. Some people say that he represents Ireland in a bad light because of the way that he puts all his Irish characters in such violent situations and made them such rude characters. I don't know if I feel that way, because I think f he made his characters American or English or any other nationality they would be just as violent. I think he writes the characters reflecting the characters. Not reflecting Ireland itself. But who knows.

I am very hungry and sleepy and I need to do work, so I will, but I will write again when I am well fed and not so sleepy/boring feeling.

3 whole Jews, 1.5 Catholics, and .5 Aaaagnostics!!

2008-09-30T14:18:00.000-07:00

L'shanah tovah! Happy new years Jews of the world (half of myself included). I am writing after attending a lovely yet at the same time strange Rash Hashanah ceremony in Dublin. A group of us from the program decided it would be nice to celebrate the New Year at synagogue instead of at home being sleepy and lazy. And Jac needed to do research for her screenplay (if you get the chance ask her what it is about, it is very very good). I offered to go along with because seeing as eh was the only non-Jew at the ceremony I thought she would appreciate having somebody there who knows as little about Judaism as she does.After a job of trying to cover my arm tattoo ( I borrowed a cardigan from the lovely Adena) and dressing in a conservative outfit (conservative for me anyways) we headed out with the gang. We walked along and realized that all together we each made 3 whole Jews, 1.5 Catholics and .5 Agnostics. there were 2 full Jews, 1 halvesie who was part Jew part Agnostic , me the part Jew, part Catholic and Jac. The full blown Catholic. We decided to sing the twelve days of Christmas but replace the words with the title of this blog entry.
When we got to the synagogue, we met the president of the synagogue and the rabbi. Both very nice men. Funny and talkative. The rabbi told us a fun joke, or at least I was entertained. This is how it went down.

Rabbi: "I had a horrible dream the other day that I was speaking to the congregation and when I woke up I was."

I thought it was funny.
The president gave us a mini tour in which we looked at pictures from when the president of Ireland came to visit the synagogue. Than we took our seats and waited for the beginning of the ceremony.

Although it was nice, it had to have been the most churchy Rash Hashanah I have ever attended. There was organ music and a choir singing the prayers in high high sopranos and whatnot. Not the best example for Jac's screenplay I must say. But all the prayers were covered and I am proud to say, I actually knew a fair amount of prayers. We all left happy to be going home though. I don't know if I'm made for religion. I get too fidgety in the end.

Today, I had classes. First my history class where I went to visit Kilmainham the historic Jail (used 1796 to 1924). It held people from the leading revolutionaries to the writer Robert Emmet. It was interesting but a little disturbing to see all the different places that they hung people. They talked about the fact that apparently in the day a crazy amount of people were jailed. Men, women, children (as young as 8 years old) for things as small as stealing a loaf of bread, or speaking out against the government. It made me feel a little bit better about the US jail system. Here are some pictures.

Old graffiti from the 1800s that reads "Beware of the Risen People, That Have Banished and Held. Ye That Have Bullied and Bribed"

Inside the Jail

The peep whole the hangman would look through
so he could figure out how long to make the the rope.

There was a glass ceiling so that "god's light could heal you"

Kind of looks like Shawshank Redemption.

Me feeling awkward in a jail cell

Then for my next class, we went over to the National Library of Ireland where there was a really impressive exhibit on W.B. Yeats, the poet and playwright. He also started the Abbey theater which is the national theater of Ireland. It was interesting to hear about his childhood, his family and how he believed in fairies and changelings and all that. It made me a little happy considering my fairy infatuation when I was a wee child myself.

After class we had cake time (my favorite time of the week) I had many pieces of cake and than went to dinner with Jac, Monica, Nia and Lexi. They made hamburgers and I brought Aero bars for dessert. Yummy. during the preparation, we decided it would be fun to write messages using our left feet. You may wonder why and it's because of the film My Left Foot. A beautiful film by the way. However, we wanted to see how well we would survive with only a left foot to communicate with. As you can see this is how we did.

Sadly my camera memory ran out of space so you did not get to here Monica's sincere apology to my mother for coloring in my lilac tattoo using her left foot. After some strenuous left foot writing we decided to take it easy and eat a bunch of hamburgers and Aero bars and hammy salad (Monica's trademark salad garnish is ham).

Nia and Lexi making burgers, clearly excited about it too.

It was delicious and we had a lovely din din. Now Jac and I are back in out room trying to do homework/procrastinating. So now I will stop being a bad student and start being a . . . working student.

DERRICK Comedy Trailer!!

2008-09-29T06:15:00.001-07:00

DERRICK Comedy Trailer

Reflecting on Pubbing

2008-09-29T06:11:00.001-07:00

It’s Monday which means to the filmies here in Dublin it is the day of rest. These past few days after so much drinking and partying we have all become very tired. Mainly I have been sleeping going to the gym and doing my homework. On Saturday it was Nick’s birthday so we all went over to his place, had a little party and then headed out on the town. I went ot a new pub/bar called the Blue Goose where I met a bunch of couch surfers.

I have to say as much fun as it is to go to bars and meet up with people, there just isn’t much time to really get to know people. It’s all based on looks, it’s too loud to actually talk so people attempt to yell for a while but than usually give up and just dance. Which is fun, don’t get me wrong, I love to dance, but if you want to get to know new people dancing just isn’t the best way. Especially if they aren’t the best dancers … I think I’m going to try and find another way to get to know the genuine Irish out there. just need to figure out how …

I am also really missing New York’s comedy scene right now, especially after seeing Derrick Comedy’s new movie they just put up a pilot for. I’ll post a link below. I love Derrick Comedy, they are genius. There are a few places here, but it just isn’t UCB, Carolines and the comedy TV scene (Daily Show, Colbert Report, and SNL … I love them so much). The most difficult part is watching it abroad is nearly impossible. There are so many sites that show TV shows that just won’t work abroad. Sigh. But I guess the one thing I will have to do is go back to the local comedy club to at least get some funny time here.

Also happy Rosh Hashanah jews out there! I’m actually going to a service here in Dublin because Jac is doing research for her screenplay, and I like going to places so I have stuff to blog about (I do this all for you people out there). I’m just hoping I don’t offend with my large arm tattoo. Tattoos are technically taboo, but depending on how religious this place is it might not be an issue. I’ll just wear long sleeves. So I will do my homework till then.

In the meantime, a little update people. I have been getting responses from some of those who can contact me, that people want to be able to leave comments on my blog so I have switched over to Blogspot. Now you can all make comments about what you think, about what I think! I’ll leave the link below. I will keep the tumblr one up for a little longer but I do plan on eventually switching over completely to blogspot.

Now I really should go an be a good student. Or run down to Queen of Tarts and get a tart. Hmmmm decisions, decisions.

Livin' in the Hood of Dublin

2008-09-29T05:25:00.001-07:00

Well, tonight I realized that I live in the hood of Dublin. In fact these past few days have lead me to believe this. I will start with tonights excitement. Jac and I, being adorable, decided that we would have a little bit of pesto pasta, and ginger snaps for dessert. As we sat eating, and gazing out our big window that looks out Cows Lane we noticed a man in a track suit begin to wrestle with a bike that was chained to the bike rack outside our window. Jac and I watched in confusion.

Jac: “what is he doing?”

The man, grabs the handle bars and starts tearing the bike from the bike rack breaking the chain.

Jac: “is he … stealing that bike?”

Carmen: “I think sooo …”

The man then biked away without a glance back. jac and I both took mental photographs in our heads, because by the time we ran downstairs he would have been long gone. And we are both quite short. So us in the fighting ring with the bike stealer would have been to say the least, not pretty.

My second realization that I live in ghetto fabulous Dublin was the day Jac lexi and I were heading back from getting a cup of coffee and we see the Guarda (the police here are called the guarda) handcuffing three guys in the walkway of our front door. We all decided to hang back and watch the arrest as the Guarda loaded the handcuffed men into the back of their truck.

We still don’t know what happened.

Then, finally a few days ago we learned that one of our neighbors got buglarised. However, it seems they were quite bumbling burglars because they stole a broken television. and left all the good stuff behind.

Anyways now we are all very careful about locking our doors and I hide my computer when I leave the room.

The last few days have been fun. I have been enjoying my classes and helping out on the music videos for the kids who are making music videos here. For my friend Sarah I helped set up lighting and DJed. i never realized before, but I don’t suck at lighting as much as I thought I did. It’s not so bad. Than I helped my friend Anu by being in her video, playing an American Apperal model. It was fun, but considering I have never modeled before I just did what Anu told me to do and hoped for the best.

The past few evenings I have been going out because as Lexi says “chance happens to those in motion” so I have been in motion at night and exercising and doing homework during the day. We tried some new bars, and met some interesting people. I got hit on by some Irish men for the first time ever. Seamus, Paul and Steven. They were nice but Seamus and Paul were to old for me and Steven had his eye on another lady from the program. She will remain nameless until she says she wants people to know. Last night I met Fenian who was cute but in the end not quite my type and he went for nameless lady in the end. Eventually I met Francisco, from Brazil. Not Irish, but neither am I. We hit it off and I gave him my number. We plan on getting together some time next week, because my weekend is currently jammed.

Point being, I’m getting my game back. Now, off to another night of meeting people. I’ll write more later.

Moher is less the Aran islands and Galway, except not . . .

2008-09-29T05:23:00.001-07:00

Moher is less the Aran islands and Galway, except not . . .

I have found out what I want to do after I am forty. For those who don’t know, I have always tried to plan ahead in life. Just have goals, to work towards. Graduate from NYU, work for SNL, write a TV show equivilant to Arrested Development or the Office, become very best friends with Tina Fey and Molly Shannon, and maybe slip having kids and getting married in there somewhere all by the time I’m forty. Simple. But I have never been able to picture myself past the age of 40. Until now. when I turn forty I will become a Galway girl. Just like in the song.

This weekend the entire program traveled out of Dublin to see Ireland in all its glory. I armed myself with deoderant and Hobknob cookies (hobknobs are oatmeal cookies sold here that i am addicted to, they are DELICIOUS). Our first stop was Galway. They dropped us off directly in Eyre Square. First thing I saw was a flea market, just like I dream about. There was a fish, baked goods, meats and vegetables, handmade necklaces and funky handmade clothes. It was all very hippie, with vegan and gluten free items. There were coffee shop every few steps. best of all, when you walked a bit further, you hit the seashore.

I traveled with Mike through the flea market sampling hats and buying a muffin. than we wandered farther along to the seashore, share we met a dog who we dubbed Michael Jackson because of his one white paw. Than we went to get a coffee at “Mocha Cafe” however, I couldn’t afford anything but tea. that is when I realized than and there that I will live in Galway when I’m forty. I look forward to it.

After that, we all bused over to Onis Oirr, the smallest of the Aran Islands. On the ferry there Sydney and I chatted and decided to make eyes at the Irish gentlemen on the ferry and get our flirt on. It worked. I vowed to hang with Sydney because of her impressive game she has going on.

Upon arrival we were led to THE hostel, which had a clydesdale horse out front who I dubbed Mangey for his lack of brushing. We got settled wnet out to one of the two restaurants/pubs on the island. The food was pretty good. I had tomato soup, chicken, and a stawberry rhubarb pie at the end. Than we headed over to the pub that was right next to the hostel and ended up drinking, petting the wild roaming dogs (Monica and I dubbed the friendliest on maddy because she/he had matted hair), and played darts with some of the men in the bar. I won a round before I headed off to bed.

Woot.

In the morning I woke up earlier than I thought I would so I went out and looked at the seashore with Mangey who I gave a Hobknob cookie. The next day we got a tour of the island. We had a historian of the island come and tell us about the history of Inis Oirr, which was very interesting. Than we were taken in buggy’s led Mangey, who was farting throughout the whole tour. I guess Hobknobs will do that.

We saw all of the mazing stone walls that snake across the hills, as cows and sheep amble through eating grass and staring glassy eyed at visitors. I wanted to pet a sheep but none were interested, so instead I visited the shipwreck that sits right on the shore. it was creepy yet pretty all at the same time. The red rusting steal had holes in it, and grass and moss grew all over. Monica and I walked inside the wreckage with awe. Our next stop was the graveyard, which was beatiful, there were elaborate headstones and people left fishbowls of flowers for loved ones so that the flowers never wilted. Clever. Than it was lunch time where we had finger sandwhiches and soup.

People wandered the Island for a while before heading out but a few of us writers decided to stay over in Doolin, a pretty little town right on the seashore. At three we headed out on the ferry. Talk about seasick, and it was outside so it was cold, and rainy. The worst part was that the ferry got stuck because we had to wait for the tide to rise so we could land.

Than when we landed it began to really rain and we all had no clue where our hostel was because there wasn’t a building in site. So we did what any group of wet people would do. We wandered up the hill until we hit buildings. I was sure we would end up stranded with the cows, but luckily we got to our hostel (Paddy’s Doolin Hostel). Changed into dry clothes and hit the pub for a traditional Irish meal. I had beef and guinness stew, with a hottoddy, and a apple crumble to finish it off. I can now say I had a traditional irish meal. Than we proceeded to do the Doolin pub crawl, which consisted of 3 pubs. It was fun but it was obvious people were getting tired and cranky so I gratefully hit the hay.

The next morning we woke up to fresh scones made by the hostel owner, one of the sweetest people ever. He sat with us chatting about experiences he had with customers and such, and made sure we got our bus to the cliffs of Moher on time.

I have decided if the the world is going to end tomorrow and I get the urge to end it before the earth cease and desist …s I will kill myself in the most beautiful place I have ever been. The cliffs of Moher. Morbid yes, but only because on the cliffs it is not unusual for people to decide to end it there. There were a lot of signs with helpline numbers on them. I must admit, it would be an interesting way to go, but considering I love my life, I think I will go in a boring old fashioned way.

Point being, the Cliff’s of Moher were beautiful. I was stunned, literally standing watching the waves crash over and over, as the enormous cliffs towered over the see. It is incredible how scary amd beatiful the earth is. I was very sad to leave, but alas I did, and walked straight onto a bus ride that lasted 7 hours. Now I am happy to say I am home, happy and tired as a marathon runner. Now for class work … oy.

Pics of Galway, Aran Islands and Doolin

2008-09-28T15:30:00.000-07:00

So I’m not supposed to fall over the edge?

The cliffs again …

Moher.

The Cliffs of Moher.

Jac, Lexi and I after getting rained on in Doolin.

All of us trecking to Doolin in the rain.

Shipwreck!!

Me at the rock wall!

The stone walls of Onis Oirr!

Me and Mangey the horse.

Sydney and I working on our flirt faces.

The shore of Galway.

Me playing with Michael Jackson.

Galway flea market!

Mike testing the merchandise in the Galway flea market.

Playing Catch Up On Last Week

2008-09-28T15:29:00.001-07:00

I’m sorry, I’m horrible, I haven’t been writing recently because things have just been super busy! But I will try and recap and than I will do a new entry entirely for my this weekend because that is what it deserves.

When I got back from Cork, I promptly began to sleep, because I didn’t get much chance to sleep during the travels (buses are not, repeat NOT comfortable for 5 hours). Than on Tuesday I had my history class and my contemporary theater class. They were fun, and I really like the teachers. What I was most excited about was the play we went to Tuesday night for class. We went to the Abbey Theater and got to see “An Ideal Husband”. It was really great, even though one of the main actresses got sick, and so her understudy was on book the whole show. The actress was amazing, I didn’t even know the script was there half the time. It was well performed and well received.

Wednesday, I went out in search of a new digital camera considering my old one pooped out on me. I got a nice one and flirted with the guy who sold it to me. A generally good way to start the day. Than I had to run off to class, to present the summery of my film. I think it was received pretty well. People had good comments and good suggestions to help me make it better. My class is very interesting because people are doing all different genres of film. There are dramas, comedies, westerns, and even a submarine movie! I do happen to be the only animation but I think soon the other writers will also try there hand at animation because who doesn’t like to write about animals or inanimate objects. Once my writing class was over I went to cake time, enjoyed an apple cake (or two) and went to make some dinner.

Sarah R. asked if I was up for helping her make a key lime pie so I of course offered my help, although i have never made a key lime pie before. Luckily with Sarah’s experience and a few gin and tonics we made a delicious key lime pie. But key lime pie needs time to cool, so Lexi, Monica, Sarah, and I decided to go out and hear some traditional Irish music. We ended up at the Brazen Head Pub, the oldest Pub in Dublin. there wasa small live band and a lot of people in the bar. I was already quite gone from the gin and tonics so I was happy when Monica introduced me to the mild and delicious cider. We thoroughly enjoyed the performance and sang along. The best part was when they played Galway Girl twice. Than we met up with a bunch of the NYU crew at the Globe which has unofficially become out local pub. It was fun.

Thursday Jac, Lexi, and I decided it was time to get some coffee and “do our homework”. This time we managed some but considering that last time we went out to get coffee and “do homework” we did none this is a big step. Than Will happened to walk by and join us so we all sat and had a good time. However, we all had to disperse because ultimate Frisbee was on at 5. And I had to make spaghetti dinner for the first ever “Lady and the Tramp” spaghetti night, I had organized!

We got to the field and started to play, I pulled my usual falling catching Frisbee stunts but sadly one of my stunts went awry, and I ended up hurting my shoulder. Jenn and Jac put my arm in a makeshift sling, just for safety really, and I went home and made pasta. Or Jac did what I couldn’t do because of my lack of arm usage, which was pretty much everything. Thank you Jac.

The “Lady and the Tramp” dinner and a movie night went well but i don’t think i can afford to do it again. making dinner for a bunch of people is expensive even when it is spaghetti and cans of really cheap pasta sauce. It was fun watching “Lady and the Tramp” but I never realized how racist it is until I watched it when I was older than 7. I will have to make sure not to do that in my animated movie. By the end of the night I was really tired and my arm began to hurt again. so although people were having fun with the strobe light in the guys room, I went for a short period of time and than made grilled cheese with Nia, and Jac. A few people came into our room and debated going out but I think everyone was tired and broke. the night ended with Jac, Will and I sitting and listening to music and watching the new iTunes visualizer.

Friday, Jac, Lexi, Will and I decided to be cultured and went out to the Modern art museum of Ireland. when there we discovered a path that looks like it belonged in a harry potter book so we dubbed it “The road to Hogwarts” We saw a lot of a great art (some pretty cool pottery mom!) and there was an interactive part where we got to draw pictures. Being art students we were happy to oblige.

We headed back for Ireland’s annual culture night. We started out going to a poetry slam which was my favorite. Than we went to listen to some outdoors bands, but they turned out to be a bunch of junior high kids trying to be rock and roll. Screaming into the mic. Painful. By the middle i wanted to have a drink, so i went out to go to Dice Bar with Nia, Jac, Lexi and Adam. It was nice but packed, so we took our drinks outside and chatted.

Then I went home and finshed my homework in time for the weekend trip. Wooh. now I need to sleep so I can go to class tomorrow and write my next blog all about Galway and the Aren Islands and Doolin.

Pics of the Irish Museum of Modern Art & Brazen Head

2008-09-28T13:29:00.000-07:00

Will’s contribution to art.

My contribution to art.

On the road to Hogwarts!

Will’s contribution to art.

Jac having a moment with a statue …

Jacs contribution to the art world.

Lexi’s contribution to art.

Oldest pub in Dublin.

The band in Brazen Head!

Us at the Brazen head, I’m not quite sober enough to aim the camera well …

Irish Museum of Modern Art!

The super cool wall at the museum!

The Ladies and I kissed the Blarney Stone and it was a frightening experience. You can watch it yourself.

2008-09-28T13:23:00.000-07:00

Cork and Kissing the Blarney Stone

2008-09-28T13:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend from Friday to Sunday I visited the far off county of Cork. A group of us (Nick, Andrew, Brett, Jaclyn, Monica, Lexi, and I) woke up at 8:30 and hustled our sleepy selves to the bus station to catch the 10 am bus. That bus was 5 hours and I was sleepy enough to forget my ipod (for those of you who are prone to motion sickness, you can feel my pain here) Luckily Lexi was kind enough to let me use an earbud and listen to her awesome travel music mix.

When we arrived in Cork, it was rainy and we were tired and ready to hustle off to our Hostel and put our stuff down. The guys decided to travel to a jail fortress in Cork while the ladies felt like we wanted to walk around the city of Cork. We walked and checked out the local bookstores and got mochas at a coffee shop.

Than we met the others (Nia, Sarah, and Adam. Those who chose to come to Cork on a later bus) and tried to find a place for dinner. We did but we all had to eat seperately at tables of four. I had a delicious halumi sandwhich. Than we decided to meet up with one of Lexi’s friends in Cork at a Pub. We stayed there for a while (I tried Jack Daniels for the first time, very nice). Lexi’s friend than got us into a dance club for free which was fun except for the fact the DJ was so bad that it would have been easier to dance to music from sesame street. We left when the club closed and headed back to the hostel room that was taken over completely by NYUers. It was like a huge slumber party.

The next day we headed to Blarney, to see the castle and kiss the Blarney stone. According to legend kissing the Blarney stone is supposed to bring the kisser eloquence. considering my career path I need all the eloquence i can get so made sure to give the stone a smooch. This was not as easy as it sounds considering the process to kiss the stone is to climb the very high, very narrow castle and hang over the edge area of the castle and kiss the stone that is a few inches over the edge while an old man holds onto you so you don’t slip and fall. For a person with a fear of heights, this was no picnic.

After that we went to the garden around the Blarney castle, and walked around. It was the most beautiful place I have been to yet. it was all moss covered trees, bright green grass, hidden waterfalls and flowers. And my camera broke. So I will have to steal other people’s photos so you can see the beauty of it all. It was like my five year old imagination come to life. I felt like a fairy or a leprechaun would pop out of a bush at any moment. I didn’t want to leave. But I did.

After that we headed back to Cork and got lunch, at an amazing little restaurant called Puccino’s where I tried the local delicacy of Ireland, a breakfast treat called “Black Pudding” which is a fried patty of grain and animal blood. It wasn’t horrible but I wouldn’t order it on a regular basis.

After that the girls decided to check out the shopping (Cork is famous for it) and take a little break. The guys decided to visit the local zoo. It was fun even though I couldn’t afford anything. Than people slowly started to leave back for Dublin until just Lexi and I were left for another night in Cork.

We went in search of some traditional Irish cuisine but the only thing in our price range was a cheap Indian restaurant. In the restaurant Lexi realized that her new top she was trying out was too revealing so I offered her my tank top since I had a sweater on anyways. We snuck into the skeezy little bathroom that was tiny and started the swap. Mid-swap, there was a knock on the door and Lexi and I, without thinking answered in unison “One minute please!”. The man who knocked promptly scolded us because “only one person allowed in the bathroom at a time”. So Lexi and I finished the swap. I was so confused that I didn’t really know what to do until Lexi said

“Carmen. Run. Just run.”

Me: “OK!”

So we ran out of the restaurant and down the street. We stopped for a breather in front of a drug store and to my surprise I noticed a man dressed in a very creepy bunny outfit. I promptly told Lexi to stop and look but by the time she looked up he was hidden. We stood for a period of time and waited for the bunny man. Until finally over the tops of the shelveswe saw two long ears and than in an instant the bunny man was coming towards us. unsure of what to do Lexi said

“Carmen. Run.”

Me: “OK!”

So we ran until we reached a lovely pub, and got a Guiness. We chatted and hit on the bartender and had as the Irish say “A grand old time”.

The next day we decided to go to Cobh which is a quaint little town on the sea shore. we walked around and tried to go to a museum but they were either closed or too expensive. So we went into the local (and beautiful) church and witnessed a baptism. Than we watched the sailboats and had tea and a huge slice of meringue cake, it was delicious and a good price. Than we headed back to Dublin on the 5 hour journey home. it was a great time. Today has been mainly sleeping the trip off.

and dying my hair, but because my camera is broken I am unable to take any new pictures to show all of you. maybe later. Hope you enjoyed the video and pictures i could save. Bedtime, I’m sleepy.

Cork Pictures

2008-09-28T11:49:00.000-07:00

The view from our hostel window

Cork from the bridge.

Us our first day in Cork.

Green pastures again. It ‘s unreal.

The green pastures of Ireland.

The Blarney Garden’s it’s prettier inside, but my camera broke before I went in.

Blarney Castle

Crossing the bridge at Blarney

Cows across the creek in Blarney.

Lexi and Jac dancing in the streets of Cork. I love Jac’s face.

Fire Alarms, Open Mic, and Sweet Sweet Success

2008-09-28T11:48:00.001-07:00

Success! This morning was the third time I went to the immigration office to try and get out of paying a stupid “mandatory fee” that nobody else has had to pay. So Susanne (the head of the program) and Lexi came to give me support and I am happy to say that they finally gave me a break and stamped my passport and let me go without paying 250 dollars! Life is beautiful.

Lexi and I than waited in the immigration waiting room and watched the big bang scientific experiment going on. We joked about how sad it would be if the world were to end and we were sitting in the immigration waiting room the last moments of our lives. So now I am home again and thought I would write a little about the past few days since I have some time before my second class with my writing teacher Orla.

Since I last wrote, things have started calming down as classes kick into gear, but I like it that way because I like classes (hikes glasses onto nose). On Sunday night we decided to take a break from partying and spending money, so we ended up staying in and doing the little bit of homework we had … until the fire alarm went off.

Not sure if this was just customery, Jac, Adena and I decided better to be safe than sorry and started to leave the building. But in our frenzy decided to take the one thing we valued most here in Dublin … our computers. We got downstairs clutching our technology and realized there was no one else outside. we called up to our other NYUers in the building next door and they told us to go back inside and stop being nerdy with our computers, so we did.

On Monday a bunch of us decided that we would go out to the free open mic for singer songwriters at the International Pub. It was cool, there were some really good work and there was a really good slam poet, which was fun to hear in Ireland. He did some works by some classic poets like Oscar Wilde and than he read some of his own works, which were really great! Now I’m tempted to try my hand at slam poetry but it seems like a person needs balls of steel to pull that off.

Mostly these past few days I have been taking classes and actually doing homework (that’s right mom, I am actually doing my homework instead of drinking Jameson, now you can be proud of me again). I had my first contemporary Irish theater class and we got our schedule of shows we’ll be seeing throughout the semester. I’m excited to go to the theater festivals here and talk to the directors.

I also had my second history class and it was fun to learn about Ireland and the strange love hate relationship there was for a while with Britain. It’s kind of fun to learn about a country that has a history that dates back farther than 1492 (well actually America’s history is older than that, but sadly I was never taught much about Native American history in high school).

Than today I had my writing course where we learned some more about organising our scripts into a readable format. I’m getting a little bit nervous about presenting my rough outline I made to her tomorrow in our one on one meeting because, there are a lot of rules to writing a good screenplay. I just want to make sure to meet the requirments for a good screenplay. But, I guess that’s why I’m taking classes in the subject.

Now I have to go and continue to be a good student.

Liffey Swim, Bacon Pep, Dun Laoghaire, Ultimate Frisbee, and Hurling

2008-09-28T11:47:00.000-07:00

I did a lot, so I will try to be brief. After the last entry I went back to Queen of Tarts, and ate a roasted tomato and goat cheese tart. Amazing! Than after doing some homework and taking a lovely walk with Lexi, Sarah, Anu and I went out to dinner, and enjoyed walking around the pubb happy area on Friday. We saw a sculpture of a dog made of sand. I thought it was funny.

After that Lexi and Monica joined us and we decided to save our money/energy, and watch Drop Dead Gorgeous. Than my roomies and I had fun with our new tin can phone that Zack, Adena, and Katie made. Now we can talk to the guys (Zack, Nick, Wes, Will, and Bret) across the lane instead of yelling and waking up the neighbors. And it is adorable.

On Saturday, a group of us decided to go to the Dublin City Liffy Swim, but we got the times wrong (we thought it was 1:30, when it was actually 4:30) so we got sandwiches, I tried an Aero Bar (a fluffy chocolate bar. Delicious!) and Lexi got a bag of Bacon Pep. Bacon Pep is bacon flavored potato chips. It tastes nasty. So Lexi and I decided that in order to make conversation with native Dubliners we would offer them Bacon Pep as a conversation starter. Didn’t work.

By 4:30 most of the NYUers watched as many speedo clad (and surprisingly hefty) men jumped into the Liffey and swam their hearts out. It was a lot of fun, but since I had no one to cheer for, I cheered for the man I dubbed “Tony” because of his tiger print speedo.

After that, Adena, Zack, Lexi, Katie and I decided to head up to Dun Laoghaire, because they had a free, outdoor showing of the movie Shawshank Redemption. We took the train and than realized that there was the possibility that we might get stranded in Dun Laoghaire because of when the trains ended. Luckily we discovered there was a late night train back to Dublin so all was well. Although, I have to admit it might have been fun.

When we got to Dun Laoghaire we saw a rainbow that arched across the sky perfectly, so we had to follow it. We found this little alcove of rocks, that jutted out into the ocean. So we stood on them and got sprayed with the surf as the tide began to come in. Every time the waves got big we screamed (except for Zack who yelled in a manly fashion) and laughed. Than we stood on the wet stones with the waves and watched the sun set. It was pretty magical if I do say so.

Then we watched the movie and ate nutella-banana-marshmellow-chocolate chip-crepes that they were selling nearby. Watching the movie was beautiful because we were sitting out near the bluffs that were all dark. I could hear the ocean the whole time. Afterwards, we were all really cold, so we hurried to the train station.

When we got back to Dublin, Lexi got a text from a group of the NYUers who were out clubbing. She and I decided to meet them at the nightclub/pub The Globe. By the time we got their we were the only sober ones so I decided (since I was tired of Guinness) to try Jameson whisky. Lets just say, it is strong, and apparently I had a lot of fun. Or so I hear.

This morning (aka noon), most of the NYUers went to Pheonix Park. On the way I saw a deer, right there in the park. When I finally stopped getting distracted by the deer everybody decided to play ultimate frisbee. Now, I have never played ultimate frisbee before and during the game I realized something. I am the clumsiest person IN THE WORLD. I have never face planted into the ground more in my life. However, I did make some catched and throws, so at the end of the game, my team dubbed me MVP because I was the most dirt covered. It was fun.

After that, I went to the local pub to watch the final hurling match. Our history teacher Tommy Graham invited us to experience the pub atmosphere during a hurling match. Hurling is Ireland’s national sport, and I don’t know if I can accurately explain the game, but it is like a mix of football, soccer, rugby and baseball. It is really rough! They have to hit the baseball type ball hundreds of yards with their paddles, than somebody else catches the ball without any type of glove or padding. Than occasionally they tackle each other and hit each other with their paddles too. It’s nuts.

Now I’m back in the apartment and plan on doing homework and sleeping tonight.

Oh, if you want to see some of my friends’ awesome blogs as well check them out below! They are funny ladies!

Pics of Life

2008-09-28T11:03:00.000-07:00

another beautiful picture of the bluffs

The sunset at the bluffs

Deer in Phoenix Park

Phoenix Park

Swimmers jumping into the water!

Racers in their speedos!

The rocky alcove we found, isn’t it beautiful!

My horribly fuzzy picture of Dena, Zach and Katie’s album cover.

Lexi and I on the bluff in front of the rainbow

Adena showing off our new tin can phone

Zack and Katie testing out the phone!

Sand Puppy Sculpture

Anu, Sarah and me out to dinner and dressed up!

Lexi and her Bacon Pep

Comedy Clubbin'

2008-09-28T10:51:00.001-07:00

Well, I finally crashed. I have been dealing with my usual bouts of insomnia, and waking up yesterday at 7am to go to the immigration office yesterday after not getting to bed till 4am for the 5th night really did me in. So my plan for going to the immigration office this morning failed when I woke up at 11am (they are only open to students from 9am-11am, oh so conveniant). Whatever. Luckily I have time so I’ll go on Monday.

Last night was great. A bunch of us went to the International Comedy Club which was great!! Irish humor is awesome! It is raunchier than any American humor I have ever heard, so of course I love it! They did things differently than I’ve seen done in a comedy club. They had a mix of really amazingly talented and experienced comedians come up and do their thing, and than they had a few spots for new people new. Sadly one of them bombed pretty badly. It was a little painful to watch, because he knew and the audiance knew that it was not going well. Luckily people were nice, laughed even when it wasn’t funny and gave him a big round of applause at the end.

This was so nice to see, because I feel like I have been to too many comedy shows in America where a person does a bad job and they get boo-ed off the stage by the drunken audiance. This drunken audiance was kind and supportive.

Everybody else was pretty much great. The last guy was so funny my face hurt from laughing so much by the middle of his routine. He took Lexi up on stage with him and began serenading her (he improvised the whole thing, it was amazing). Than a very attractive American went up and they began doing really funny freestyle as the American guy beatboxedoccasionally. In the middle of it all they grabbed Lexi and started dancing with her. It was so funny I fell over.

I might consider going up there and doing an open mic some time but I’m scared my stuff isn’t quite to Irish standards yet. I have to work on it. I will need to go back and watch a couple more nights to really get the humor down.

Afterwards, we went to a club called The Globe but by than I started crashing. Near the end of the night all I could do was sit and stare because I could no longer understand what people were saying I was so tired. Than one of my friends was harrassed by a drunk guy who got grabby and than started getting violent but was to uncoordinated, we decided we both wanted to leave. Overall it was a good night although drunk, violent man was a bit of a damper. Not sure what I’ll be doing tonight, but I do know I want to stop in “the Queen of Tarts” again, so I think I’ll do that now.

My First Day of Classes & Dealing With Mean Irish Immigration Officials

2008-09-28T10:50:00.001-07:00

Well, I think things are finally settling down. Although every night is pretty much a party and my room happens to be party central (it’s because my room has a balcony and looks over Cows Lane which is an adorable cobble stone street).

However, classes have begun so people are actually doing things. I actually had my first day of class on Wednesday with my teacher Orla (it’s a pretty sweet name). She is a writer and a director here in Dublin and she has experience working in television which made me really excited because I hope to do the same (SNL if you’re there, contact me!!).

It was a good class, we talked about what makes screenwriting different than other types of writing, and what the most important aspects of screenwriting are (that would be strong characters, steady clear plot, and realistic dialog/motives). Than we all pitched our ideas for our feature length. I was honestly afraid the teacher would throw mine out because I plan on writing a Pixar animation (I saw WallE and I just had to). But she didn’t, she actually gave me some good advice and thought it would be a good challenge considering I tend to make my scripts pretty raunchy normally.

Today I woke up early to go to the immigration office. On arrival I was informed by the man stamping my passport that our semester lasts 12 days longer than the allotted time for people to stay in Dublin without a green card. I would have to pay $250 to stay those 12 days.

So I went to the office to ask if there was a way I could get the fee waived considering the dollar is so weak and they have waived it before. However, the “nice”(aka evil) man at the desk told me I “shouldn’t be here in the first place” if I couldn’t pay the fee.

When I told him that yes technically I could pay, it would just mean I wouldn’t be eating for the next month he said “than you should have more money.” and if I didn’t pay the fine I would be fined 3,000 euro and put in jail for 6 months. All in all not the most pleasant man. I went and talked to Susanne (the woman who runs the program/wonder woman), and she told he was being a big fat liar, so I’m just going to go back tomorrow and hope for a better person.

Than I went on a walking tour with my teacher Tommy Graham, he teaches History,and Politics of Ireland and he was a riot. He showed us around cracking jokes the whole time, telling us about the history of the buildings and of the Temple Bar area (Temple bar is where I live. For those who know New York, it’s like the Village, and for those more familiar with Minnesota it’s like Dinkytown without the college theme).

After that I went with my friend Sarah and Anu to check out the Irish shopping scene and HOLY CRAP, if I had the money!! It’s like runway clothing, in actual stores. Believe me I was very tempted, but I held out. For now …

Sarah and I decided we would treat ourselves to a tart from “Queen of Tarts” the bakery under our apartment. Seriously, it is the most beautiful bakery I have ever seen. We had a spinach,brie, and pine nut tart. I plan on eventually trying every baked good in the shop. I will be 20 pounds heavier/happier when I get back.

Now off to a comedy club in Dublin!! I’m excited!

Pics from my first few days here!

2008-09-28T07:13:00.000-07:00

Dublin Castle. Well part of it.

A really cool thing I saw in the streets of Dublin. I liked it and so should you.

The best bakery ever. Sadly, also one of the most expensive.

Baked goods from “Queen of Tarts”

More tarts from “Queen of Tarts”

Jac and my awkward first day of school photo

Ladies (Lexi, Sarah, Jac, and Monica) out on the town exploring. I’m taking the picture.

Me way too excited as I point at a street lamp.

Trinity College, one of the places we looked at on the walking tour with my teacher.

Tommy Graham talking to us in the bank of Ireland (another stop on the tour).

Carmen's First Day In Dublin

2008-09-28T06:43:00.000-07:00

Filming, Muggings and Black Current Guinness

2008-09-28T06:41:00.000-07:00

The filming for “Carmen’s First Day in Dublin” occured on the second day, and let me just say it was a rollercoaster. Jaclyn (aka Jac) fellow creator/cinematograper and I went out on Monday to shoot the film with her new, amazing handheld.

On Sunday, I had spotted an old fahioned, very authentic pub and convinced Jac we should film there. On arrival, Jac and I, noticed that the bar was inhabited by two old men and two old women sitting having pints at the corner table. After asking the bartender if we could film there he said yes but would we be willing to come in tomorrow because the floor was being washed right then.

Before we had the chance to leave, one of the old men of the foursome asked Jac if her could see her hat which got all of us into a conversation. this was cute at first but than one of the old ladies (Jac and I refer to her as the toothless old lady because of her lack of teeth) told us to come and have a pint with them. We said no we were working (and it was three in the afternoon). Than after a moment the women began hopping up from her chair and circled Jac and I.

Meanwhile the old man who pulled us aside was talking to Jac but holding her hand in a vice like grip. This was freaking me out but Jac just kept chatting. After a few mintues of circling us the women went outside the bar whispered to some guys outside the pub and than came up to Jac and urgently told her she “needed to talk to us out side the front door of the bar”.

The man however would not let go of Jacs arm even as jac started saying she needed to go. As began backing up in attempt to grab Jac and flee the area, the man reached out and grabbed my arm too. He began pulling us to the back of the club insisting that he needed to talk to us in the back.

So I did what any young woman would do in this type of freaky situation. I started yelling really loudly “I’M SORRY SIR BUT WE’RE ON A SHOOT, AND WE HAVE TO GO, SO HAVE A NICE DAY!”. I don’t know how menacing that was but it seemed to work since he let go of us and leaned it whispering.

“Listen ladies, I don’t want you going out the front door becasue that women is going to steal your money, just go out the back quickly”. Well, he didn’t have to tell us twice, Jac and I thanked him and ran out the back.

After that we decided to go to a different bar.

So we found O’Neals, a pub we had been to before, talked to the manager and started shooting. This is where we met Ekaterina Kortsagina (the bartender in the film), who introduced us to the magnificent drink of black current Guinness. a dash of black current juice, and a lot of Guinness. Jac and I now have a new favorite drink here in Dublin.

So after much shooting in the pub, we downed our half pint of black current Guinness, talking to the old man sitting next to us in the bar. We talked to him about NYU and he told us how it’s beans compared to Trinity. In the end it was a good day and we survived.

Now for the first day of screenwriting class.

Where in the World is Carmen Angelica

2008-09-28T06:39:00.001-07:00

Arrival in Dublin

2008-09-28T06:22:00.000-07:00

I have arrived in Ireland, where the men are drunk, the women are buxom, and the children are both.

Ok not really, so please, all of you Irish people out there, don’t hurt me. That was just a little shout out to Prairie Home Companion (for those who don’t know what Prairie Home Companion is shame on you and look it up).

Sorry about the delay but getting Internet access took a while so there is a bit to read but there usually isn’t this much.

But it’s true, On Friday, I hopped a plane with fellow NYUers Anu, Sarah, and Adena. I arrived in Dublin after flying for about 7-8 hours, which for someone who is afraid of flying, is a huge ordeal. Luckily I was seated next to Adena, who turned out to be my suite mate and new frenemy. We agreed on this term because let’s face it being a friend and an enemy is waaaay more exciting than just being friends. And she kept me calm during the flight

After getting our assigned room, I finally got to see my roomie/fellow filmin’ lady Jaclyn and after hugging we both fell asleep instantly. Than we had orientation, went out for fish and chips with many fellow NYU students, went to a pub and than fell asleep again.

These past few days have been mainly jet lagged blurs of trying to buy things we need to live here and getting overly excited about Irish accents.

Last night we went to a great club that had 3 layers. The first floor being a pub, the basement a dance hall, and upstairs there was a cafe! Pretty sweet, it was. I danced, I sang, I got rip roaring drunk. It was a good time or as they say in Ireland “It was a Crack”.

I have to go now because I’m going to spinning class and so next time I write I will most likely be very winded.